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[h=1]Former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer Auditions as Hillary Clinton's Populist Challenger[/h] [h=2]Outspoken Maverick, a Long Shot for Democratic Presidential Nomination, Appeals to Disillusioned Liberals[/h]
One of Montana's biggest industries is mining. A third of U.S. coal reserves are in the state, and Mr. Schweitzer tried one plan after another to boost extraction, including a high-tech proposal to convert coal into gas. It failed but got him on "60 Minutes."
His positions on energy put him at odds with many Democratic liberals. He supports the Keystone pipeline, hydraulic fracturing and expanded oil and gas drilling—positions unpopular with environmentalists. From a bookshelf, he grabbed a chunk of Bakken shale, dug out of the deposit that runs nearly 2 miles deep beneath the Montana prairie: "Smell the oil," he said, with the air of a wine connoisseur. U.S. geopolitics will continue to be hogtied, especially in the Middle East, without an aggressive domestic energy policy, he said.
In his second term, Mr. Schweitzer battled tea-party lawmakers in the GOP-led Legislature by vetoing a record 78 bills. He vetoed seven of the bills in front of TV cameras, pressing a red-hot "VETO" branding iron into the paperwork.
"The most dangerous place in Montana is between Brian and a camera," said Republican state Sen. Jeff Essmann of Billings, who was senate majority leader at the time. Mr. Essmann said the governor's vetoes were "rude to the citizens who cared about those bills."
Mr. Schweitzer also annoyed leaders of his own party. In 2009, standing next to Mr. Obama in a Belgrade, Mont., airplane hangar, Mr. Schweitzer introduced the new president by praising the Canadian health-care system at exactly the moment the administration was backing away from a similar government-run option while drafting the health-care overhaul.
"We had a private meeting, and he told me, 'Your voice on health care isn't helpful.' " Mr. Schweitzer recalled.
"Every Montana cowboy tells stories; the governor is famous for his, but this one is a bit of a tall tale," said senior Obama adviser Jim Messina, who attended college in Montana. "I was in the room, and the president didn't say that at all."
Three years later, Mr. Schweitzer introduced free government health clinics for 11,000 state employees and their families—a test, essentially, of the public option that was championed by the left, but not included in the new health-care law. Republicans in the state aren't convinced the savings are as high as Mr. Schweitzer contends, and many said they didn't like that the governor started the program without legislative approval.
Earlier this year, Mr. Schweitzer became a TV political commentator for MSNBC, where, via a camera in his wine cellar, he expresses disappointment with what he sees as the corporate takeover of politics—such as Mr. Obama's health-care law, which he said was crafted by legislators "who dance when lobbyists put quarters in the jukebox."
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment.
Montana's clinics drew the notice of liberal advocacy groups, including the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. When the senior senator from Montana, Max Baucus, was appointed U.S. ambassador to China last year, these groups organized a "Draft Schweitzer" campaign.
Mr. Schweitzer went along for a while, then pulled the plug. "I would have been frustrated in the Senate," he said.
A few months after he left the governor's office, Mr. Schweitzer led a shareholders' revolt that landed him in the chairman's seat at Stillwater Mining Co., one of Montana's biggest employers. The job, he said, occupies about half his time.
Mr. Schweitzer has barely unpacked the boxes from his eight years in the governor's mansion, but he made time to craft a national health-care policy that would have the federal government provide free insurance to those who can't pay and compete with private insurers to reduce costs for everyone else.
Asked if he's the "anti-Hillary," Mr. Schweitzer said, "I can point to eight years of peace and prosperity under Bill Clinton …but elections are always about the future."
John Patrick "Pat" Williams, a former nine-term Montana congressman who has known the Clintons for three decades, said Mr. Schweitzer "could do surprisingly well in Iowa, and, if he does, it could mean millions of dollars in contributions that could get him into the New England states."
In the bathroom downstairs, where he hangs political photos, there is one of him with Ted Kennedy, who campaigned here during his brother's 1960 presidential race. Mr. Kennedy borrowed a hat and boots to ride a bucking horse named Sky Rocket in the Eastern Montana fair. The photo's inscription: "I'm ready for Sky Rocket!"
Mr. Schweitzer may be ready for his own wild ride. "I think I've got ideas and drive," he said. "But how do you tell the lobbyists and corporations, 'You don't rule Washington, D.C.,' when they do? Once the pigs start squealing, nobody can hear."
One way, he said: "Yell louder."
—Peter Nicholas contributed to this article.
Write to Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com
One of Montana's biggest industries is mining. A third of U.S. coal reserves are in the state, and Mr. Schweitzer tried one plan after another to boost extraction, including a high-tech proposal to convert coal into gas. It failed but got him on "60 Minutes."
His positions on energy put him at odds with many Democratic liberals. He supports the Keystone pipeline, hydraulic fracturing and expanded oil and gas drilling—positions unpopular with environmentalists. From a bookshelf, he grabbed a chunk of Bakken shale, dug out of the deposit that runs nearly 2 miles deep beneath the Montana prairie: "Smell the oil," he said, with the air of a wine connoisseur. U.S. geopolitics will continue to be hogtied, especially in the Middle East, without an aggressive domestic energy policy, he said.
In his second term, Mr. Schweitzer battled tea-party lawmakers in the GOP-led Legislature by vetoing a record 78 bills. He vetoed seven of the bills in front of TV cameras, pressing a red-hot "VETO" branding iron into the paperwork.
"The most dangerous place in Montana is between Brian and a camera," said Republican state Sen. Jeff Essmann of Billings, who was senate majority leader at the time. Mr. Essmann said the governor's vetoes were "rude to the citizens who cared about those bills."
Mr. Schweitzer also annoyed leaders of his own party. In 2009, standing next to Mr. Obama in a Belgrade, Mont., airplane hangar, Mr. Schweitzer introduced the new president by praising the Canadian health-care system at exactly the moment the administration was backing away from a similar government-run option while drafting the health-care overhaul.
"We had a private meeting, and he told me, 'Your voice on health care isn't helpful.' " Mr. Schweitzer recalled.
"Every Montana cowboy tells stories; the governor is famous for his, but this one is a bit of a tall tale," said senior Obama adviser Jim Messina, who attended college in Montana. "I was in the room, and the president didn't say that at all."
Three years later, Mr. Schweitzer introduced free government health clinics for 11,000 state employees and their families—a test, essentially, of the public option that was championed by the left, but not included in the new health-care law. Republicans in the state aren't convinced the savings are as high as Mr. Schweitzer contends, and many said they didn't like that the governor started the program without legislative approval.
Earlier this year, Mr. Schweitzer became a TV political commentator for MSNBC, where, via a camera in his wine cellar, he expresses disappointment with what he sees as the corporate takeover of politics—such as Mr. Obama's health-care law, which he said was crafted by legislators "who dance when lobbyists put quarters in the jukebox."
A White House spokeswoman declined to comment.
Montana's clinics drew the notice of liberal advocacy groups, including the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. When the senior senator from Montana, Max Baucus, was appointed U.S. ambassador to China last year, these groups organized a "Draft Schweitzer" campaign.
Mr. Schweitzer went along for a while, then pulled the plug. "I would have been frustrated in the Senate," he said.
A few months after he left the governor's office, Mr. Schweitzer led a shareholders' revolt that landed him in the chairman's seat at Stillwater Mining Co., one of Montana's biggest employers. The job, he said, occupies about half his time.
Mr. Schweitzer has barely unpacked the boxes from his eight years in the governor's mansion, but he made time to craft a national health-care policy that would have the federal government provide free insurance to those who can't pay and compete with private insurers to reduce costs for everyone else.
Asked if he's the "anti-Hillary," Mr. Schweitzer said, "I can point to eight years of peace and prosperity under Bill Clinton …but elections are always about the future."
John Patrick "Pat" Williams, a former nine-term Montana congressman who has known the Clintons for three decades, said Mr. Schweitzer "could do surprisingly well in Iowa, and, if he does, it could mean millions of dollars in contributions that could get him into the New England states."
In the bathroom downstairs, where he hangs political photos, there is one of him with Ted Kennedy, who campaigned here during his brother's 1960 presidential race. Mr. Kennedy borrowed a hat and boots to ride a bucking horse named Sky Rocket in the Eastern Montana fair. The photo's inscription: "I'm ready for Sky Rocket!"
Mr. Schweitzer may be ready for his own wild ride. "I think I've got ideas and drive," he said. "But how do you tell the lobbyists and corporations, 'You don't rule Washington, D.C.,' when they do? Once the pigs start squealing, nobody can hear."
One way, he said: "Yell louder."
—Peter Nicholas contributed to this article.
Write to Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com
